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5 Ways to Side Hustle Through College

As I mentioned in my last post it is not uncommon for you to find yourself a little short on cash during your college career. Throughout my years in college I side hustled out of mainly interest, and to put a little extra money in my pocket. Side hustling is not always fun or easy, but it is definitely rewarding. Here are five great side hustles that I have a lot of personal experience with, and could work well for you too:

1. University Jobs

A great way to make a little extra money on the side is to work for your university. Jobs on campus are good options because they offer flexible hours for students and their academic responsibilities.

A lot of schools offer positions in their dining halls. Personally, I worked in the dining hall during my second year and it was a great experience. I made around $13 an hour, which began to add up since I was working around 12 hours a week.

Another job that many schools offer is to work the desk at either the library or the fitness center. Now, these jobs, from conversations with friends, pay slightly less at around $10 an hour. Though they pay a little less the benefit is that you are often allowed to do other work while at the desk. This allows you to literally get paid while doing your homework!

2. Postmates

Postmates is a food delivery service, and is an excellent college side hustle. The only downfall is that it is mainly offered in big cities, so this might not be a viable option for some of you out there. Postmates allows you to walk, bike, or drive their deliveries, which makes it a viable side hustle for almost everyone out there.

In my third year of college I became a post mate. I worked on a motorized scooter which allowed me to cover a lot of ground. On their website Postmates advertised the ability to make $25+ an hour. While working for them I found $15-$20 an hour to be a much more realistic margin. Your wage is also affected by the level of demand while working. There were instances where I worked and did not receive a job for half an hour, so side hustler beware.

3. Blogging/Writing

It is not an easy task to start your own blog and gain a strong following, but if you are capable of this it can be very lucrative. If you can create your own blog and can gain a following based on your writing, or your topic you can make a ton of money. I know the margins that bloggers charge depends on site traffic, but I know of one blogger who makes upwards of $1 million dollars a year. So, if you can gain a following in college there is some money to be made there.

4. College ambassador for an App

Throughout my time in college I have reached out to apps and have had friends do the same. There are countless apps whose target audience are college students. Those apps want to infiltrate campuses because they know that apps diffuse quickly in a college environment.

This side hustle takes a little work to reach out to the app and work out a deal with them, but I have known it to happen on multiple occasions. Apps have sponsored parties on my campus to get the word out, or have had deals where they paid friends $1 for every download using a certain promo code. So, there is money to be made, it might just take some work.

5. Tutoring/Coaching

Whether your skills are in the classroom or on a field, there is definitely money to be made there. Colleges are becoming more and more selective in who they admit nowadays. Parents have become willing to shell out good money for tutors in all subjects. Tutoring in specific topics can make you good money, but parents are willing to pay the big bucks for SAT/ACT tutors. If you did well on either of those tests you can leverage that into charging anywhere from $50-$100 an hour.

Now for all of you athletes, parents care about their child’s physical development just as they do their mental development. Parents encourage their kids to follow their dreams which often takes them down an athletic path. I have friends who charge anywhere from $30-$100 an hour for one on one coaching sessions.

These are just some of the side hustles you can do in college. The list goes on and on: Uber/Lyft, Social Media Marketing, TaskRabbit, Wag, etc. The trick is to find something that works well with your academic commitments.

I want to leave you with the idea of being creative. Everyone has skills, abilities, gifts. Etc. that people value, but the hard part is to monetize those skills. So, be creative, monetize your skills, and side hustle on.

Connor Sweet is on the verge of finishing his college career and has deep aspirations to invest his money in the future. He is in the process of getting his finances in order and paying off his student debt in order to reach this goal. As he begins this journey he wants to offer his personal experience, advice, and findings in order to help college students/young adults in this very confusing time/pivotal point.